Home/Life

Home/Life Preface

War photographer, Robert Capa, once said, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough." The images in this book were taken by kids for whom the distance between camera and subject has all but disappeared, kids who were both photographer and subject.

In eleven cities around the world 121 kids were given cameras to capture their world on film and document their daily lives. This book presents the photographs of kids living in the trenches of the modern and, at times, ruthless world. These children often come from dysfunctional families-children such as Lena, who begs for money in a Moscow train station to take care of her younger brother. Lena's mother taught her the only phrase she knows in English: "Have money?" Ildikó is another such child, who fights to survive in the gypsy ghetto of Budapest. And then there is Raju, who dreams of becoming an artist because, he says, "Think of all the attention I'll get!"

In this book the kids are not given attention, they command it. They present us with an honest glimpse into their world. This is their personal, unchoreographed photo essay-compelling, confrontational, and raw. When the shutter clicks, it is their turn to speak. "Look at us, this is our world," the photographs seem to say.

The Home/Life photographers are kids growing up in chaos. Most of the parents are either dysfunctional or simply absent. The children, who are thirteen years of age on average, live with foster parents, in homeless shelters, or wander around the slums on the urban fringe. As participants in the Home/Life project, for once these children controlled their own representation, not being portrayed as the subjects of a human interest story like you would see in a newspaper. The tables are turned in Home/Life; the kids themselves stand behind the camera. They observe themselves, their friends, and the adults in their communities, bridging the gap between their reality and our outsider interpretation of it. By controlling the creative force behind the photography, the kids are taken seriously; as such, the Home/Life project expands their understanding of what is possible for them to achieve.

In 2001, with collaboration from local organizations, Home/Life set up a series of workshops in eleven cities around the world for kids who were forced into the world at a young age and now must fight to survive. In each city up to twenty young participants took part in the workshops. Professional photographers taught them the basics of photography and gave the children the confidence to follow their instincts. The task was then left to the kids. Each participant, armed with their very own simple but sturdy camera, ventured into the streets.

After every workshop the children received a new roll of film. Home/Life staff managed the negatives. By the spring of 2002, they had amassed a pile of 15,000 photographs from 121 kids documenting 11 cities. 15,000 visual fragments that depict, from Paris to Paramaribo, the unsettled lives of kids always dealing with the question of what and where is home. 15,000 stills from lives in turmoil.

In some of the cities where the Home/Life staff set out to work the project failed to get off the ground. A juvenile court judge in Rio de Janeiro derailed the project. In Beijing the workshop coordinator was forced to discontinue her search for homeless children, thwarted by government officials who assured her that there are no homeless children in China.

However, the Home/Life project was successfully completed in eleven cities. Kids in Budapest, Cairo, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Moscow, Nairobi, New Delhi, New York, Paramaribo, Paris and Rotterdam viewed themselves and the world through a camera lens. Under the supervision of New York art director, Christiaan Kuypers, Home/Life selected a number of photographs from the wealth of images that the children produced. "The only criterion applied was image quality," says Kuypers. "We assessed the pictures without knowing who had taken them. Decisive factors in the decision-making process were composition, subject, and emotional charge. After all, what makes a good photograph? It is the product of timing and circumstance, captured by someone with a good eye. And you either have good visual instincts or you don't, regardless of whether you are illiterate or educated."

150 images were selected, including photo essays, haunting self-portraits, and stills capturing the world of the street and the shelters. The photos often involve novel composition and framing of subject. The images in the book appear just as the children captured them; the photos were not cropped or otherwise edited.

After the selection was made, Home/Life staff returned to the cities that the kids call home to have them talk about their images. This wasn't always possible: Some of the children had moved or had disappeared without a trace, which is why at times their biographical information is incomplete or missing.We have also only used the kids' first names, as many either did not have a last name or were not willing to provide one.

Fortunately, most of the kids were located and provided the captions for their photos; they appear in a separate section at the end of the book. In those cases where the caption enhances or changes one's understanding of an image, it is also printed next to the corresponding photograph.

The Home/Life project resulted in this book, a website, and an exhibition, which premiered in Jakarta. The exhibition is now touring the cities of the participating children. This enables the young photographers to show off their work in their home cities. In addition, a copy of this book will be presented to each of the young photographers.

The Home/Life website, www.homelessworld.org, has been designed by NairoBits, a program that trains adolescents from the slums of Nairobi in web design. It features the photographs, captions, and brief biographies of the kids who participated in Home/Life.

The kids were often astonished when they first saw the photos of their peers from other parts of the world. When he saw the photo of Wendy from Rotterdam, the initial reaction of thirteen-year-old Elvis from Nairobi was, "It's the same in Holland as with us.… People have the same problems everywhere, whether they're black or white."

Home/Life is first and foremost indebted to the young photographers. They captured the images; they are the thought provokers. In addition, the project would never have been possible without the untiring efforts of our workshop coordination staff across the world.

The Home/Life project was made possible through a large number of grants and sponsors. The start-up capital for the project was donated by the guests of the Charity Christmas Dinner held at the Hotel Blakes in Amsterdam.

The proceeds from this book will go to the Stichting Homeless World (Homeless World Foundation), which sets up and supports media projects for underprivileged children all over the world. Homeless World projects offer a platform for a group that is rarely or never heard. These projects enable young people to express themselves, develop their creative skills, and gain confidence in their own abilities.

Geert van Asbeck, Frank Bierens
Homeless World Foundation